'Girl Stroke Boy'

      In the last week or so the bf has been watching 'Up Pompeii' and 'Up the Chastity Belt' two films starring Frankie Howerd.  The first is a spin-off from the saucy BBC comedy series (1969-70) and the second is a 'spin-off of a spin-off' being essentially the same as 'Up Pompeii' but set in the Middle Ages.  The cast is largely the same (including several British actors who you might have expected to have known better).  However, I'm not here to be censorious. Both of these films are towards the milder end of the British Sex Comedy of the 1970s - and yes, it is a genre, and yes, we have watched both the 'confessions' series and the 'adventures' series.  I think the worst one we watched was Hazel Adair's 'Keeping it up Downstairs' of 1976. We certainly hit the bottom.*

     Both 'Up Pompeii' and 'Up the Chastity Belt' were directed by Ned Sherrin (1931-2001). Sherrin (aka 'Ned Twinky' re: 'Private Eye') is best remembered for bringing the satire boom of the early 1960s to the small screen with 'That was the Week That Was', and for presenting 'Loose Ends' on BBC Radio4.  His film making tends to be glossed over.  As, maybe, his long standing collaboration with writer and critic Caryl Brahms which resulted in at least nine stage and tv productions.  All of this preamble brings me, in a round about way, to last night's film: 'Girl Stroke Boy' of 1971.  Produced by Ned Sherrin and Terry Glinwood, directed by Bob Kellert.  It is, I suppose, an English version of the 1967 film, 'Guess who's Coming to Dinner'. The cast is pretty special: Joan Greenwood, Michael Horden with Clive Francis and Peter Straker ('Straker' on the publicity etc just to add to the ambiguity). Elizabeth Walsh, Patricia Routledge, Peter Bull, & Rudolph Walker also appear, fleetingly and unexpectedly, in the supporting roles.  It is based on a stage play the 'Girlfriend' written by David Percival.  I have tried, but I can find very little about it or the playwright. It however did not get the critical acclaim claimed on some websites.  It was a flop. Apparently.  Be that as it, may Ned Sherrin and Carol Brahms took it in hand and turned it into a film. One of the changes was to make 'Jo', the girlfriend in question, black.  The plot is simple: young man (Clive Francis) returns home for the weekend with his boyfriend (Straker) who is passed off as his girlfriend.  Chaos ensues.  The result is farcical, bordering on the absurd.  Greenwood and Horden over act wildly.  Sometimes it is very funny, other times cringe inducing.  Some beautiful cinematography, but it cannot quite escape its theatrical origins.  Very much of its time.  The review in 'Gay News', Suki J Pitcher was corrsucating - 'a good idea, which gets swallowed in a mess of theatrical jokes and finally drowns in a confused sea of innuendo.  Why Ned Sherrin thought this script, which flopped on the West End stage, was 'a strange comedy....perfect for the times', remains a mystery....'

     Among the extras on this Indicator cd are a charming interview with Peter Straker and a short film, of 1972, 'A Couple of Beauties' staring Pat Coombs, James Beck, and Bunny Lewis.  Terrible but oddly fascinating. 

Girl Stroke Boy

1971

Director                 Bob Kellat
Cinematogrpahy  Ian Wilson
Producer               Ned Sherrin and Terry Glinwood

*  The spin-off - and the sex- comedy are (perhaps) linked phenomena of the 1970s. There is certainly a blurring of the boundaries.  Both were hugely successful: 'On the Buses' was the 2nd most popular film of 1971, and 'Confessions of a Window Cleaner' the top grossing film of 1974.  But then the 1970s were a nadir for the British film industry, and they weren't that good elsewhere.